Service of All the Dead

Book excerpt: Service of All the Dead is the fourth novel in Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series. The sweet countenance of Reason greeted Morse serenely when he woke, and told him that it would be no bad idea to have a quiet look at the problem itself before galloping off to a solution. In the quiet parish of St Frideswide's, most people could still remember the murder of the churchwarden. A few could still recall the murderer's suicide. Even the police closed the case. But Chief Inspector Morse was alone among the congregation in suspecting that not everything might be so tidily put to rest. And a chance meeting among the tombstones reveals startling new evidence of a conspiracy to deceive . . . Service of All the Dead is followed by the fifth Inspector Morse book, The Dead of Jericho.